Hillel Neuer appeared on i24News with Laura Cellier to discuss how brutal dictatorships weaponize the U.N. Human Rights Council and how so-called U.N. experts, such as Alena Douhan and Francesca Albanese, use their positions to empower oppressive regimes and support terrorism.
Laura Cellier, i24News: Qatar has just been re-elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, despite the fact Doha hosts, funds, and propagates Hamas and jihadist propaganda via its state owned news channel, Al Jazeera. And according to the U.S. State Department, Qatar engages in the brutal repression of its own people via enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests.
Saudi Arabia missed out on a seat for the second time. To talk more about that, we’re joined by Hillel Neuer. He’s the Executive Director of the group United Nations Watch. Great to have you with us, Hillel. So, this is for a six straight time that Qatar’s won a seat on the U.N. body, which is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights globally, what do you make of it?
Hillel Neuer: Sadly, the Human Rights Council, despite its noble origins back in 1946 founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, has been completely corrupted by dictatorships. It’s turned into a travesty of justice. More than 60% of the members today are either full-on dictatorships, serial human rights abusers, or other non-democracies.
China, which oppresses 1/5 of humanity by denying any freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly, is basically a permanent member of the Council. They’re always on the Human Rights Council. The Cuban Communist dictatorship, a police state that is holding hundreds of political prisoners, including many young people whose only crime was to speak out for democracy-Cuba is sitting on the Human Rights Council. Eritrea, a horrific regime, is on the Human Rights Council.
And you know, Qatar being reelected. Qatar is a country that their credentials are oppressing women who have no basic human rights. They need a guardian. Qatar sponsors the Taliban, Hamas and Al Jazeera, all of which spread jihadi terrorism. It’s not accidental that they got elected. You could say that the modus operandi of the Council is having dictatorships as their judges and guardians on human rights.
Laura Cellier, i24News: And Hillel a glimmer of good news, if you like, Czechia has also been re-elected to the same Council. This is a country which has proven itself a strong ally in the fight against Iranian backed terror.
Hillel Neuer: Look, there’s a glimmer of light. Sadly, the few decent democracies-because there are democracies that get elected often-they are weak. But to see a decent democracy elected is important. It just means that the moral minority might be a little stronger. That is, those who might dissent from resolutions that enable legitimized dictatorships.
Look just a few weeks ago, here in Geneva, I spoke inside the Human Rights Council and confronted one of their worst apologists. Her name is Alena Douhan. She’s the U.N. expert against sanctions on dictatorships. So, the Human Rights Council has a permanent monitor opposing sanctions on Iran, on Venezuela, on Qatar, or anytime a Western country imposes a sanction on the dictatorship.
This woman, Alena Douhan, is their apologist, and we documented, using U.N. reports, that she received over $600,000 from Beijing, and more than $100,000 from Russia. Her office received money from Qatar. At the same time, she made videos saying in Xinjiang that the Uyghurs are doing fine. They’re happy. There’s no problem with the Uyghurs. The only problem are American, Canadian, and British sanctions on corporations that use slave labor to exploit the Uyghurs. So, she is one of the main U.N. experts.
The other one, of course, is Francesca Albanese, who openly supports Hamas, who says openly, in her view, that America is controlled by “the Jewish Lobby.” So, these are many of the UN Human Rights Council experts. Of course, there are a handful who are doing a good job, and there are a handful of resolutions that actually hold abusers to account, but these are the minority.
Laura Cellier, i24News: I encourage everyone to go and look that that up online. Hillel Neuer taking on Alena Douhan at the U.N. Human Rights Council. It really is something. Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of United Nations Watch. Thank you. We appreciate it as always.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you.
